Chariot Motors to supply e-buses with ultra-caps

The Bulgarian electric bus manufacturer Chariot Motors has received an order from Belgrade. The public transport company GSP from the Serbian capital wants ten electric buses of a special kind – Chariot will use ultracapacitors which won them the tender.

GSP had asked for ultra-fast charging times. Ultracapacitors rely on capacitive storage rather than chemical energy storage. So they can store and release large amounts of energy very quickly but often to the price of low energy density.

Chariot claims their ultra-cap buses can recharge in seven minutes at each final stop as they serve on a route starting at Belgrade Waterfront. The order included four chargers. Other than that, technical details remain scarce.

In news of another order that sees Chariot Motors supplying a further three buses with ultracaps to the Bulgarian city of Gabrovo, the manufacturer speaks of 40 kWh capacity. Given that the website only shows one single-deck model, it is safe to assume the Belgrade buses are of the same make.

Staying in Serbia, the order came through for Chariot in a consortium of DAT Holding. GSP Belgrade says the contract is worth almost six million euros and includes four chargers and diagnostics and service.

At the signing, Deputy Mayor Goran Vesić reaffirmed Belgrade’s plan to decarbonise their transport. According to local media, there would no longer be a single-vehicle that uses diesel fuel in public transport by 2030. “All vehicles will be on gas and trams, and it is expected that the first metro line will start working by 2028,” he said.  “In the next five years, we will buy another hundred buses, so that by 2027 we will have six hundred gas vehicles,” Vesić emphasised.

The plans largely fit our previous reporting. Belgrade aims to invest 5.2 billion euros with private stakeholders to reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality by 2030. In those plans, the city had called for 40 per cent of buses in the city to be powered by electricity by 2030, 80 per cent of cabs, 100 per cent of municipal vehicles, 80 per cent of commercial vehicles and 20 per cent of private vehicles. Belgrade plans to spend 950 million euros on electric buses and their infrastructure by then and 6.45 million euros on 1,000 electric bicycles and 150 rental stations to be integrated into the public transport system.

chariot-electricbus.com (Belgrade order), beograd.rs (Vesic statement), chariot-electricbus.com (Gabrovo order)